Potluck with Pumpkin Pies

Here comes another blog dedicated to food! Makes you wonder if all I do is just eat, eat and may be “bark up the wrong tree”, right? Part of my Monday morning normally goes in weekend memory assimilation and whatever fun stuff I do during weekends, they all end up with a fun meal. So this shouldn’t really make you wonder anymore.

The weekend was a grim reminder of what is ahead of us, the Michiganders, this coming winter. Temperatures were in the 40s for most of the day Saturday and Sunday.

Friday – Our drive to an apple farm for a Halloween get together was exciting because Nakul had hay-loads of fun even though it was bitterly cold. He was so amused with painting his pumpkins that if not for an allergy that Kameshwari contacted thanks to the “haywire” atmosphere, we would have stayed there longer. Nevertheless, the thought of making pumpkin pies for our following day’s potluck affair stimulated me enough to get into the car and drive back home with sprinkles from my candy apple generously sprinkling all over my seat as I kept eating (and driving) till I was left with just the stick. Two fresh pumpkins are a lot of work to peel, puree and to do the rest for your pie filling. I was tired when both the baking trays in my oven looked “done” finally at 1:30 AM.

We decorated our house (decorated here means the opposite) for Halloween – hoping that the guests that evening would get booed even before they entered and may just leave. But…

When all of us settled down in our cozy family room munching on the delicate Brussel-sprout walnut appetizer, we were making plans to visit a haunted house that night. A couple of hours and my-only-party-prank-fiasco later, when supper was ready to be consumed, all of us opened our serving pots and laid them on the dining table. And then, we knew the menu for the evening.

A friend asked, “So what does potluck mean?”..

Complete silence.

“May be this would be the topic for my next blog”..

“Ha..Ha…”

As the conversation drifted, I was determined to take upon that as a private investigation. We went on with our business for the rest of the evening. A haunted house trip where we paid to get scared, demanded us that we wait long outside in the cold. The natural outcome was that we had thoroughly numbed all of our sensory cells (almost everywhere). So at Midnight when they were all ready to call it a night, I served all my friends a slice of the pumpkin pie. They said they liked it. Well..The numbing did help after all.

Private Investigation Findings:

Potluck originated several hundred years ago – According to some sources, its first recorded use in print was in the 16th century. One account of its origin, perhaps a bit more colorful than factual, says that peasants of that time, since they received no appreciable wages and had no local grocery store at which they could do their shopping, depended mostly on whatever bits of meat they could scrape together or their lord felt like giving them. When there was enough meat in the pot, they would make a stew. It was never exactly the same kind of stew twice, because on different days, different things had the “luck” of falling into the pot.

In modern times, if you have guests showing up unexpectedly at your home, you can serve them “potluck” for dinner. They are served whatever happens to be in the pot (or the freezer) that night. And “potluck suppers” are affairs having no planned menu. Each person brings a dish or pot to pass, and with luck a balanced menu falls into place. And if everyone does not bring the same dish, then that is specially considered good luck!!

But our potlucks are normally more planned than any planned event menus!

Not this time though. For the most part, it was an unplanned menu – Looking back, I think we were lucky that night.

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Besides fantasizing about being a Peter Gibbons at least for a couple of days at my work, I think I have a long way to go to realize some of the other fantasies. But like any ambitious man out there, I will get there!
Note: All views expressed in this blog are mine alone and have got nothing to do with my company Cogent IBS, Inc., its employees or any of its affiliates.
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